Healthy Cooking

Happy Monday! It truly is a happy one for me; I am starting on some fun new projects for work this week that you will undoubtedly be hearing about. We had a tiring weekend in Killington, VT (post to come!); I could not get to sleep for the life of me either night and promptly fell asleep upon arriving back home in Boston. I am hoping to build some good energy to put toward marathon training and work this week. And we have a meeting tonight to work on the details for our Boston Marathon fundraising party.

I’ve been cooking up all sorts of simple, healthy meals lately and thought I would share a couple today. The first features Pete & Gerry’s eggs from our Stone Hearth dinner last week. We actually already buy eggs from the Pete & Gerry’s brand, but at the dinner, I also received some of their heirloom eggs, these lovely light blue eggs below.

It’s so easy to build a meal around an egg, so for lunch one day I poked around the kitchen to see what I might eat. I started by making a half cup of wild rice from Minnesota. Wild rice, as you may know, is not rice at all, but is the grain from a grass-like plant that grows in and around the lakes in Minnesota. It’s black and brown and kind of chewy and nutty, and it makes a nutritious base for lots of recipes.

In this case, I topped the wild rice with crispy kale made by quickly cooking it in a little bit of olive oil in a pan. I also cooked one of the heirloom eggs at the same time and added that to the wild rice mix. I topped the whole thing with half of an avocado, some garlic powder, and nutritional yeast, and I had an amazing, filling lunch.

Another easy dish I made recently was a twist on orange shrimp. My lightened up version was sautéed, not fried or breaded, so the result was different but fresh and flavorful.

The saucy ingredients? Lots of fresh cilantro, a sprinkle of brown sugar, a pinch of curry paste, 1/4 cup of peanut butter, two cups of orange juice, and lots of sriracha.

A little sesame oil and soy sauce to taste.

All mixed up in one big pan with peeled and cleaned shrimp and heaps of broccoli. I simmered it to thicken the sauce, which didn’t really happen, so we went ahead and used spoons and forks for this dinner. I can literally still imagine the bursts of citrus, sweet, peanut butter, and cilantro, with a kick of spice.

I love meals that are pulled together with all sorts of random ingredients! We’ve been doing a pretty good job sticking to our healthy eating plan for the New Year, and although the meals are sometimes too simple to even be blog-able, we are feeling great!